RE: primary coil

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Pete Komen by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <pkomen-at-zianet-dot-com>

Hello Neil,

I also went large with my first coil (8 inch nominal 27 inches of #26
winds).  This is probably overkill for an NST (4 inches would be plenty).  I
used over 150' of copper tubing in my primary and its inside diameter is
close to your secondary diameter.  Tubing is fine as the current travels on
the surface anyhow.  That said, for NST power levels, you can get away with
#12 solid.  (Samon's plumbing and electrical supply is the cheapest that I
have found for 1/4 inch copper tubing, $10 and change for 50 feet.  You
might consider the Geek Group MMC caps that they are selling, one string of
10 could be enough at $20-30.

I built a powered winder from a Garage door opener (chain drive) and it
works fine, except it's intermittent use and cuts out once in a while from
overheating.  I built on a turns counter using a micro switch and an old
solenoid driven counter I have.  If someone can help, the hand crank should
be fine for one coil.

I wasn't able to find 15kv NSTs here in Las Cruces.  The sign guys said that
they weren't necessary except in colder climates.

Good luck and keep safe,

Pete Komen

-----Original Message-----
From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
Sent: Saturday, June 16, 2001 12:45 PM
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: primary coil

Original poster: "neillien22 by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<neillien22-at-hotmail-dot-com>

Hi All,
Just subscribed to this list yesturday....this is cool....
I am building a 10 inch diameter 1200 turn secondary with 22 gauge heavy
wire, my coil length will be around 35 inches.....i plan to power it with a
15kv (not sure of the amperage offhand) gas tube transformer i believe from
a big neon sign here in vegas....i plan to experiment witht the spark gap
and home caps till i get that right....so far outlook is good on those....
But the primary coil....i have calculated i will need around 95 feet....but
i'm curious as to what you all think about Solid or tubeing?
and about the diameter of it....
any help would be appriciated......
Also any good ideas on how to wrap a 10 in diameter 5 ft long tube???so far
i'm thinking mount it hotizontaly and put a handcrank on it....
but that seems like it'll take awhile....
but i guess it'll be worth it with the end result=)

Thanks,
Neil
neillien22-at-hotmail-dot-com
Las Vegas,Nv